


The Sweetest

by FridayMorning



Series: Give Them a Reason [8]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Autistic Entrapta (She-Ra), Baking, Canon Autistic Character, Catra (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Developing Friendships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Entrapta (She-Ra)-centric, Everyone Needs A Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Self-Doubt, Swearing, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25637782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridayMorning/pseuds/FridayMorning
Summary: “Entrapta?” Catra knocked on the door and tried to ignore the painful pulse that had spread from her chest to the rest of her limbs on her walk over. Bright Moon’s castle did not have a lab, but it had a spare room on one of the lower levels that King Micah had authorized for Entrapta’s use. Catra heard the authorization had stemmed from Glimmer’s advice of ‘Let her have this or she’ll explode’, but that was a rumor.“It’s open!”Catra entered and saw Entrapta had made the space her own. Almost every available surface was covered with pieces of tech, including a few complex pieces that might have had First Ones origins. One portion of counter space against the far wall had been cleared of half-finished experiments and instead was covered with colorful bowls. Entrapta stood next to it and waved.“What…” Catra cleared her throat and began the acrobatic feats necessary to cross the room without knocking anything over. “Hi, Entrapta. What, uh, what am I helping you with tonight?”“Isn’t it obvious?” Entrapta opened a paper sack that let out a puff of white powder. “We’re baking, silly!”
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Catra & Entrapta (She-Ra)
Series: Give Them a Reason [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1784470
Comments: 28
Kudos: 196





	The Sweetest

Catra was going to kill Adora. At this point, she felt she deserved to. Not only had Adora used endless love and speeches on Catra’s progress and potential to trick her into believing she was ready to join the rest of the princesses at a meeting as if she had always been a full-fledged group member, but on the morning of said meeting she refused to let Catra go back on her word.

Now, Catra did her best not to crawl out of her skin as the princesses talked about the best routes between Scorpia’s kingdom and their own, and how to build them. Under the table Melog guarded her feet, their lithe body like a wire ready to snap.

Catra could handle the tension, debates, and occasional passive-aggressiveness. They were all to be expected considering the complexity of the plan everyone was working to enact. At least, everyone except Catra. So far she had been careful not to make a single suggestion throughout the meeting. She played it off as aloofness rather than a mental roadblock that stopped her from voluntarily becoming the center of the conversation. Most of the time she barely listened to what the others were saying. Half of her attention fought an internal battle of whether or not she deserved to sit in the meeting room. After all, it was only a matter of time before Adora and her friends realized she had been playing a part this whole time; how could she be someone capable of redemption?

“Guys, I’ve figured it out! We can use the laser attachments on some of the salvaged bots to clear the paths!” The other half of her attention was on Entrapta, who sat directly across from her with both hands on her tablet and both pigtails gesturing wildly. “Then once all the rocks and woodland debris are gone, I can work on construction bots that will pave the new roads-”

“That sounds fun and all,” Mermista cut in, the veins at her temples proving the effort it took to hold in what she really wanted to say, “but right now we’re still focusing on where the routes connecting the Fright Zone to your kingdom should be _located_ , not how they should be made.”

“We will happily accept your mechanical expertise once we’ve entered the next phase of the plan,” Glimmer assured. Catra heard the unspoken sentiment. _We’ll be able to do that as soon as we’ve finished designating routes to your kingdom, because the rest of us have stayed on task and finished this portion of the plan already._

Perfuma nodded and offered Entrapta a soft smile. “We must take this one step at a time though, the same way we must take each day moment by moment.”

The other princesses were trying, she knew, but their threadbare patience was beginning to show. Entrapta did not seem to notice, and Catra hoped that was the truth. _It’s not like anything they’re doing here could compare to how cruel I’ve been to her before._

Adora cleared her throat and turned toward Catra, giving her two seconds to go through the seven stages of grief before saying, “Catra could solve this problem better than all of us.” Her genuine smile made Catra forget her homicide plan for a moment, but then she added, “After all, you must have helped create a few routes for shipping supplies when the Fright Zone and Dryl were working together.”

She did not mean anything by it, Catra knew, it was a simple statement of fact that justified her earlier claim that Catra was equipped for solving the current problem. However, the words made her fur bristle and she felt her claws sink into the wooden meeting table before she could counter the instinct to brace herself. The warmth by her legs had gone missing, leaving her unprotected. _Where’d Melog go?_ Catra cleared her throat. “I… Yes, I remember where I drafted a few. We never had time to make them suitable for civilian travel, but they did the job for moving large shipments of resources.”

Glimmer rolled a marker across the table to her. Catra peered down at the map of Etheria that spanned half the table. Over the past two hours it had been marked up by all but one of the princesses to be used as a blueprint for the next phase. Catra made three dotted lines and hoped they were somewhat accurate. “That’s the best I can give you.”

“Scorpia, what do you think?” Glimmer asked.

Scorpia assessed the lines and smiled at Catra. “If they work as good as I remember, they’ll be perfect.”

“Entrapta, what about you?”

Entrapta looked up from her tablet. “Huh?”

Glimmer swallowed her irritation. “How do you feel about us using the lines Catra drew as the blueprints for real roads?”

Entrapta leaned forward and peered at the map. “Yeah, those look fine!”

The entire table breathed a sigh of relief. “Well,” Glimmer said, starting to stand, “I think we can take a break. When we regroup, we can start talking about the next phase. Entrapta, thanks for helping us get that discussion started already.”

“No problem!”

Catra’s fur flattened. She had done well. _This time._ Was that voice her own? Shadow Weaver’s?

The princesses began to disperse. A hand clapped her on the shoulder. “Good work, Princess Kitty!” Catra turned to see Netossa. “I thought that’d never end.”

Catra gave a thin smile. Spinnerella offered similar thanks before linking arms with her wife and leading her out. Catra sagged against Adora. Melog poked their head out from under the table. _Where were you?_ Catra wondered as she rubbed her beneath her chin. “Do you think we could find something to eat before the next half of today’s torture?”

Adora was not looking at her. Catra followed her gaze and almost jumped from her seat.

“Hi,” Entrapta said, still holding her tablet. “Can I talk to Catra for a minute?”

“Sure.” Adora had already stood. “You two take your time.”

Catra grabbed for Adora’s wrist, but in an expert maneuver her girlfriend gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before walking out. Catra looked up at Entrapta, and in that instant realized she would prefer to have all of the princesses’ attention on her rather than this. “Hey,” she managed. That was most she had spoken to Entrapta in weeks.

“Hi.” One thick lock of purple hair pulled out a chair and Entrapta sat next to her, evening the height difference. “Thanks for helping me out, I thought that meeting would never end.” She laughed.

Catra did not think it would be wise to mention how Entrapta was part of the reason the meeting had dragged on, or how this was merely a short break before the next onslaught of mind-numbing discussions. “Don’t worry about it.”

As if a switch had been flipped, Entrapta’s focus redirected to her tablet. She tapped the screen a few times and held it out for Catra to see. “I’ve been writing a code to help determine what emotions someone is expressing. I check off what bodily cues I’m seeing here-” She pointed to a row of boxes with text next to each. “-and then I press this button and the algorithm spits out the most likely answer. So far it has a success rate of nearly forty percent! Isn’t that exciting?”

“Yeah, cool,” Catra agreed, curling her tail around the leg of her chair to keep it from giving any signals.

Entrapta slipped her tablet into her bag and pulled out the recording device she had become known for randomly whipping out. “I’ve been told that Melog plays a large role in how you express your emotional state. If I can better understand your connection, I think it would provide the basis for a new breakthrough in my project. Can you answer a few questions for science?”

Catra resisted the urge to let her ears flatten back against her skull. She focused on the feeling of Melog resting at her feet. _I can handle this._ “I… if you really want, I guess.” Entrapta beamed. “Okay! First, can you describe how your connection formed and what it entails?" Catra blinked. “Uh…” She began to explain what happened on Krytis with the burst of light. Entrapta nodded and occasionally asked Catra to elaborate. Catra forced herself to remain patient and open throughout the interview. The subject was deeply personal, especially when she described Melog kissing Adora’s cheek as an example of Melog’s body language reflecting her emotions. Still, if this recording helped Entrapta with her latest project and made her happy, she owed her all these answers and more.

“Alright, I have one more question for you!”

Catra nodded for her to go ahead. She realized her nerves had mostly faded. This felt like the overly curious Entrapta who had asked her a million questions about the Fright Zone and hardly waited for a response before searching for the answers on her own. 

“When I was causing everyone to start to get upset- I know my algorithm was correct with that analysis- your companion curled up by my feet protectively. What did that mean? Was it a reflection of you?”

Catra felt her chest tighten. Melog, who had been otherwise passive throughout the questioning, now lifted their head. There was no sense telling anything but the truth, otherwise Entrapta might get the wrong idea about what she was hiding. The last thing Catra needed was Hordak thinking he had competition. “Yeah. I don’t know. You were offering a good idea and everyone was kind of ignoring it because it wasn’t the answer they wanted at the moment, and it- it was a good idea…” she trailed off.

Entrapta still looked confused.

Catra cleared her throat. “I’m sorry if it made you more uncomfortable, I know you don’t need me to protect you.” _You need protection_ from _me, not by me._

Entrapta’s eyes flashed with something Catra could not read. “No, no!” she assured. “Melog is no Emily, but she’s very nice to have around. Thank you.”

Catra felt a floodgate opening. “Entrapta... how are you so nice to me?”

“I do my best to be nice to everyone,” she said easily. “It’s a work-in-progress, but Perfuma and the others are always so helpful with telling me things, like eye contact! Never realized how important that was before.”

Catra was too occupied with her own guilt to point out how Entrapta had not, in fact, been making eye contact with her at all throughout the interview. “No, I mean me in particular. After everything, you don’t look at me with resentment or fear or- or anything bad?” She had not expected it to come out like a request for validation, but it had, and now it hung heavy in the air between them.

Entrapta blinked. “Of course not. I accepted your apology on Darla, remember?” She chuckled. “That was months ago! It’s all better now.”

Catra’s conscience was caught in a whirlpool of advice she had gotten from all the princesses over the past few weeks. She remembered Mermista’s philosophy. _Words rarely fix anything. We have to look for what we can do, not what we can say._ “Are you sure there isn’t anything else I could do to make it up to you? Anything I could do to help?” She had never groveled like this with anyone who was not Adora before, but Entrapta’s words did not settle right in her stomach.

Entrapta hesitated. “Help?” Catra nodded again and held her breath. “I can always use some help in the lab. You can join me tonight! Perfuma has been begging for a proper meditation session with Hordak and Wrong Hordak-” _Wrong Hordak. How do I always forget he exists?_ “-and she said it might be good for me to stay behind. Something about ‘helping them work through their dependency issues’ on me. I don’t mind, I’ve never been a fan of sitting still with my eyes closed anyhow, not when there’s so much fun and more important stuff I could be doing!” A thick tendril of hair waved, as if nonchalantly pushing aside the tangent. “I don’t mind working alone, but if you’re interested I’d love to have you there.” She smiled again.

“Of course,” Catra replied in a heartbeat, not giving the voice in her head a chance to remind her how she did not deserve this chance to make amends, how nothing she did would be enough-

“Then it’s settled! Everyone’s happy.” Entrapta clapped her hands together. Then her grip on her tablet tightened and she leaned forward. “You are happy, aren’t you?”

Catra’s ear flicked. “Yeah, yes, of course I am.” _You magically don’t hate me, why shouldn’t I be?_

Entrapta nodded, satisfied, and returned her attention to her tablet, probably recording observations about Catra’s bodily cues to help perfect her algorithm.

The door opened and Spinnerella entered, followed by the rest of the princesses returning from their break. Everyone began to take their seats. Adora saw Entrapta was still in her seat. She handed Catra an extra sandwich she had snagged on her lunch break and walked around the table to fill Entrapta’s old spot instead of requesting the other princess to move.

Adora caught her eye across the table. She looked pointedly from Entrapta to Catra and made an inquisitive face. Catra forced a smile and a thumbs-up. Adora beamed like a spotlight, and it was a miracle Entrapta did not notice.

Catra returned her attention to the sandwich as the second part of the meeting began. She pushed down her doubts that what had occurred was too good to be true. It had to be true, it had happened, and it was ridiculous to keep torturing herself when everything was fine. _Is it? How could you deserve to move past what you’ve done so easily?_ The voice took her doubts and cemented them into a sturdy ache between her ribs. Catra had no answer.

. . . .

“This is so nice! It’s like I’m getting you ready for a date,” Adora said as she brushed Catra’s hair. Catra’s self-care skills had vastly improved ever since her arrival to Bright Moon, but letting Adora had become a routine that Catra doubted she would ever fall out of. If Perfuma knew, she would use a lot of mindful-hippy terms to describe it, like ‘joint-intimacy’.

“Ew. You’re my girlfriend, don’t be gross.” Catra jabbed her elbow back. “It’s not a date. It’s nothing like a date. It’s... it’s…” The ache in her chest pulsed like a fearful heartbeat.

“It’s _good._ ” Adora stopped brushing Catra’s hair for a moment to squeeze her shoulders. “You’re acting like the worst possible outcome happened instead of the best.” She squeezed again and the handle dug into Catra’s back. “Sorry!”

Catra snorted. “You’re such an idiot.” She stared at the mirror. Catra sat cross-legged on a padded stool and Adora stood behind her, looming large and close. Catra leaned back and noted how perfectly their reflections fit together. “I know.” And she did. Entrapta had done more than wave all her fears aside. She offered her a way to feel better, a new beginning for a broken friendship. “But I can’t help but think...” _Something is wrong. Entrapta shouldn’t be the most eager person of the group to forgive me, not when she’s the one I’ve done the most harm to._

“Then don’t think!” Adora returned to taming Catra’s hair, mouth turned up at the corners as she pretended her request was logical. “Tonight will go better than you’re imagining, I know it will. All you need to do is relax and believe.”

“You sound like Perfuma.”

“Hey.” Adora’s reflection gestured pointedly at her with the hairbrush. “The lady can make a good point sometimes.”

“How about when she suggested we shave our heads to symbolize our rebirth through a new healthy relationship?”

Her sly smile stretched and broke into laughter. “I said _sometimes._ ”  
Catra laughed. Her reflection turned away from the mirror and cupped Adora’s cheek, bringing her down for a kiss.

. . . .

“Entrapta?” Catra knocked on the door and tried to ignore the painful pulse that had spread from her chest to the rest of her limbs on her walk over. Bright Moon’s castle did not have a lab, but it had a spare room on one of the lower levels that King Micah had authorized for Entrapta’s use. Catra heard the authorization had stemmed from Glimmer’s advice of ‘Let her have this or she’ll explode’, but that was a rumor.

“It’s open!”

Catra entered and saw Entrapta had made the space her own. Almost every available surface was covered with pieces of tech, including a few complex pieces that might have had First Ones origins. One portion of counter space against the far wall had been cleared of half-finished experiments and instead was covered with colorful bowls. Entrapta stood next to it and waved.

“What…” Catra cleared her throat and began the acrobatic feats necessary to cross the room without knocking anything over. “Hi, Entrapta. What, uh, what am I helping you with tonight?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Entrapta opened a paper sack that let out a puff of white powder. “We’re baking, silly!”

Catra tilted her head. “Oh.” Entrapta used that word in the Fright Zone whenever she offered Catra and Scorpia small treats that were odd yet delicious. Catra did not know what it entailed, though.

“It’s been so long since I’ve had a tiny strawberry cupcake. This will be great!” She pulled her lavender-tinted goggles over her eyes. “Wash your hands, and we’ll get started.” Her hair gestured in the direction of the sink.

Catra followed, wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into.

. . . .

Catra had never directly worked side-by-side with Entrapta before. In the Fright Zone their relationship had been very one-sided with Catra doling out the orders. The change was easier than she expected. Entrapta spoke and worked quickly, but the tasks and instructions she gave Catra were all relatively simple, and her cheer and patience seemed endless.

“I think the batter may have been a teensey bit overmixed.” Entrapta peered at the bowl of pink gloop.

Catra glared down at her failure. _Screw-up. It could not have been more simple and I still-_

“That’s okay, though! All it means is that the batch will be a little more dense. Wrong Hordak likes them better that way, anyhow. We’ll give those to him.” Entrapta showed Catra her own bowl. Catra knew almost nothing about baking, but even she could tell it had been mixed to perfection. “Next time, aim more for this consistency, okay?”

“Next time?” The ache in Catra’s chest, briefly forgotten, returned full force.

Entrapta nodded and set the bowl aside. With both hands and hair, she arranged white paper cupcake liners in each indented section of four metal trays. “I’m thinking when these run out we try for blueberry.”

Catra listened for any indication that Entrapta did not really want her there, that she was only inviting Catra out of pity, or out of a feeling of obligation to Adora. All she found was a smooth matter-of-factness. “Blueberry,” Catra repeated numbly.

Entrapta nodded again. “My second-favorite flavor. It used to be my favorite, but then I tried using fresh strawberries and cream and-” She glanced over at Catra and stilled. “Catra?” She pushed her goggles back up on her forehead and gaped.

Catra wiped the back of her hand across her face. Her tears continued to stream down her cheeks.

Entrapta’s hand twitched in the direction of her tablet. “Should I be taking notes? No, now is not the time for the algorithm- Is it? Can I? No! No, think like Perfuma, put your feelings before my own.” Entrapta slowed her excited breathing. “Do you need to meditate? I can try to be quiet,” she said, voice trailing off into a whisper. Catra’s sniffling was cut off by a sharp and brassy laugh. Entrapta cocked her head. “Is that a yes or a no?”

Catra laughed harder. She wiped her face again and tried to control herself as she met Entrapta’s eyes. “I’m okay, don’t worry about me.”

Entrapta frowned. “I don’t understand. Of course, I rarely understand these situations, but- is it my fault? Damn! I was trying- I- Catra, you have to believe me-”

“What?” Catra pushed down the rest of her laughter. “Entrapta, it’s not your fault.”

“It is! I accepted your apology already, I shouldn’t be acting like this.”

Catra’s brow furrowed. “Entrapta, what are you talking about? You… out of all the princesses, you’re most entitled to hating me. Instead you’ve been the sweetest. Literally.” She gestured to the makeshift-bakery. “If I’m acting weird, it’s because I don’t know how to handle it.”

Rather than seem relieved, Entrapta fidgeted. Her fingers curled tightly and relaxed in a continuous pattern, as if longing to hold her tablet. “Of course. Of course, because you said you were sorry and I said it was okay. That’s why I want to be your friend. Because it’s okay now.” Her voice was stiff.

The fear of the ache tearing her in half seized Catra with the next unexpected bout of pain, but she pushed it down. “Entrapta?”

Entrapta’s shoulders rose. “I should put these in the oven.” Her hands and hair shook as she lifted the trays. Catra expected at least one to hit the floor, but all safely made into the oven. Entrapta shut the oven’s door and stared at it instead of facing Catra.

“Entrapta, you know you can hate me, right?”

“I don’t hate you.” Her voice cracked. “I _don’t._ ”

“Okay.” Catra swallowed. “You know you can still be angry with me, right?”

“No!” Catra flinched back. Entrapta sounded like when she tried to warn everyone about the portal. “No, I’m not supposed to be angry anymore! I tried to talk to Perfuma about it, but when I told her I forgave you she- she congratulated me on moving past everything. So I didn’t say anything else, because I’ve realized that when they don’t understand, it means it’s a me-thing. This is just a me-thing. When you forgive someone, you’re supposed to move on, not keep- keep- keep-”

Catra realized she was holding back tears. She set a hand on her shoulder, and Entrapta crumbled. Catra’s mind reeled back to the Fright Zone. _Entrapta likes hugs, right? Scorpia hugged her a lot. Shit, how do I know so fucking little about her after all we’ve been through? Because you’re an asshole, that’s why._ Catra pulled her into a tight hug. _Shut up,_ she told the arguing voices. _Stop pitying yourself for two fucking seconds and comfort her._

Entrapta hid her face against Catra’s shoulder and wrapped her hair around her back like an extra set of arms. “I’m sorry. I keep trying to show everyone I care, keep trying to act the right way so they know, and I _keep failing._ ”

“Entrapta.” Catra willed herself to find the right words. Entrapta sounded so broken. “They know. I know. I promise. But you can care about someone and still be angry.”

Entrapta quieted for a few seconds. She lifted her head from Catra’s shoulder. “I don’t want to be angry. I don’t want to make you feel bad forever. I don’t want to keep thinking about it, but I can’t stop, and I can’t let it out, and I can’t distract myself from it.” She dropped her head again.

Catra held her quietly until Entrapta had composed herself again. “I’m going to make a suggestion.” No response. “I think you deserve to let everything out, and I think I deserve to face the brunt of it. So if you want, you can yell at me for a bit.” Perfuma’s meditation techniques had their perks, but there was no such thing as a cure-all, and Entrapta clearly needed another approach.

She shook her head. “No, I’m going to hurt you, and then it’ll all be even worse.”

“I’m going to hurt more knowing that you’re keeping this all inside. Anger is something you have to let out. Otherwise it’s going to- to-” She searched for an apt metaphor. “It’ll corrode you on the inside, like metal and rust. I mean it. I’ve had plenty of firsthand experience.”

“It _has_ felt as though I’m being eaten from the inside…” Entrapta trailed off in thought. Catra watched her run mental calculations of whether the potential benefit of opening up would be worth the risks. Entrapta stepped back and breathed deeply. “Okay. You have to promise to believe that I don’t hate you.”

“I promise.” Catra stood firm. She did not say anything else, did not twitch or show any sign of losing her patience as the silence drew on.

Finally, Entrapta took another deep breath. “I’m angry at you,” she began. When the world did not end, she continued, “I’m angry at you because you lied to me from the start. You made me believe the other princesses weren’t my friends, that they didn’t care about me. You made me believe that you were my real friend, but you didn’t care about me either. You betrayed me like I was nothing. You made me believe that I wasn’t worth caring about.”

Catra’s tail twitched, but she stood passively. She was grateful to have left Melog in Adora’s care, because if her companion was here the task of staying neutral would have been a thousand times more difficult. Entrapta was not finished, but she would more-than-likely cut herself off if she saw she was distressing Catra.

“I’m angry at you because most of my dreams are still on Beast Island. I remember waking up and panicking because I don’t know what happened to the portal, I don’t know if I’m seconds away from watching reality crumble! I remember days passing in a distorted, forgotten world, and wondering if time and space have already collapsed and this is all that remains. I remember hating myself because I don’t deserve to be the only survivor, not when I’m responsible for making the thing that caused so much destruction. After a while I tried to convince myself that it was better this way, with so much tech to explore and no people to judge me or yell at me for getting excited over it. I was alone for so long that by the time Bow and Adora came to save me I didn’t want to live any other way. I didn’t think I deserved to.” The last six words were hushed, a private thought that she regretted voicing even as she spoke it. Entrapta lifted her head and met Catra’s eyes. They glittered as hard as amethysts. “I’m more than angry at you! I’m filled with this- this- this _burning_ inside and I need to know why! Why did you do it? Everyone asks me if my experiments are worth it- was this like that for you? Did you get the chemical reaction you wanted?” By the end of the speech her body was shaking, but her voice remained firm.

Catra shifted her weight from foot to foot, like the ground burned with her shame. The ache had seized her throat and made it hard for her to breathe without pain. Weakly, she replied, “You don’t want my excuses.”

“I _need to know._ Because of you I’m always trying to prove my worth as a friend, I’m always fearing I’ll be left behind or given up on. l feel like I’ll never work hard enough or fix enough to make up for the parts of me everyone ignores or asks me to hide.” Her arms crossed her body in a protective hug. “I need to know.”

She deserved a better answer than Catra could give. A pathetic answer was better than none, though. “I lied because I wanted to use you. I knew you were a genius, I knew you had inside information on my enemy, and I thought that if you worked for my side I’d be unstoppable. I did and said whatever I thought would make you stay. I sent you away because- because I was so full of myself I forgot how smart you were, and I was terrified of being proven wrong because some part of my brain already _knew_ but didn’t want to admit it. I thought I was in too deep to start over, and the only other option I saw was to get rid of you. I was selfish and I didn’t- I didn’t view you as a person. I didn't view anyone as a person, then, only as tools.” Catra looked down. The tip of her tail brushed the floor. “Entrapta, you have to believe me- all of the lies I told you were nothing more than that. You deserved so much more than I gave you. I’m sorry, and when I say that I want to make it up to you I mean it, no matter what it takes or how long.”

Entrapta stood quietly for a minute, taking it all in. Her eyes pierced Catra, taking in every detail. Gradually they softened. “That… felt good. A lot better than meditation. You’re not upset with me for the things I said?”

Catra shook her head. “No. You said a lot of important things. Some I’ve been denying, some I hadn’t even thought about before. The least I could do was listen, and… apologize, again, even though my words aren’t worth much. I’m sorry.”

Wordlessly Entrapta pulled her in for another tight hug.

When they parted Catra said, “I think... you should share some of what you told me with the princesses. About feeling judged, or like a bad friend.”

Entrapta pulled back further from her and her eyebrows knit. “Oh, I don’t know.” Her voice tightened with self-consciousness. “They wouldn’t want to hear all that.”

Catra leaned back against the counter, letting her have her space. “You don’t have to do it now, but eventually… You don’t have to keep pretending to be okay. You can tell someone how they’ve hurt you, or are still hurting you, and not ruin your friendship. True friends listen and choose to be better rather than turn away from each other.” After a moment’s thought, she added, “Or make someone rely on an algorithm instead of being open about how they feel. Maybe talk to them about that, too.”

Entrapta did not reply, but she picked up her tablet and began rapidly typing. When she finished she said, “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Catra.”

“You don’t need to thank me for doing the bare minimum. And if you need to, you can always yell at me again.” At Entrapta’s concerned look, Catra nudged her shoulder and smiled. “That’s a joke.”

To her surprise, Entrapta laughed. A lock of hair rested around Catra’s shoulders. “Do you smell that?” she asked. Catra inhaled and was greeted with the sweet smell of baked strawberries. “They’ll be ready in a few more minutes.”

“That’s good.” Catra hesitated. “Entrapta… I really meant what I said. Is there anything else I can do to help make up for the past? I know nothing can ever completely fix it, and you’re allowed to stay angry-”

Entrapta cut her off with the same patient voice she used when relaying the recipe’s directions, “I don’t want to stay angry. I don’t want you to constantly feel like you have to do things for me.” Entrapta smiled. “Ever since you apologized on Adora’s ship I’ve seen you try to be a friend, a real friend, to everyone. Keep being my friend, and we’ll call it even.”

Catra exhaled, and the ache in her chest eased. It did not leave, but it lessened, and that was enough for now. This was a work-in-progress, they both knew that, and neither of them seemed interested in giving up on it. “Okay,” she said, “I can do that.” And for once, none of the voices had anything to say.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This chapter has taken a lot longer to write than the others. I did not expect how personal it would be. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, and it was harder than usual to organize my thoughts and decide what ideas could stay and what needed to go. What I knew above all was that a large part of Entrapta's character was defined by her trying to avoid confrontation, but having her efforts dashed by other characters misinterpreting her behavior, and I wanted to work with that and give her the catharsis she deserved. I hope I made the right choices, but that's up to your interpretation. Thanks for sticking with the series. I don't know if I'll write any extra parts for it, but it will always hold a place in my heart, and so will all of your lovely comments.


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